The Commercial Appeal has learned that the Grizzlies have traded Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Kwame Brown, rookie guard Javaris Crittenton and first-round draft picks in 2008 and 2010.

The decision was made that the Grizzlies could no longer move forward with Gasol on and off the basketball court.
The deal allows the Grizzlies to gain salary cap relief, as Brown is in the final year of a deal that pays $9,075,000.

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I don't get this trade. For the Lakers this is a brilliant move and turns them into an instant contender.

But what do the Grizzlies really get? A useless Kwame Brown and Javaris Crittenton. That now gives them 3 talented young point guards in either their first or second season. What's the point of that?
They also get a couple of first round picks, but this just reeks of tanking to me.

The other Western Conference teams must be pretty mad at the Grizzlies for pretty much just giving Gasol away. I know I would be.

Memphis is so stupid. Why would they want Crittenton anyways? They already have Conley, who does not even play for some dumb reason.

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Totally. Conley is injured right now, but they also have Kyle Lowry who looks like a very nice prospect. I mean, the whole reason they bought out Stoudamire was to give Conley and Lowry more minutes, and now they will have to split the minutes 3 ways again. Crazy.

They are saying that the Lakers will leave Bynum at the 5, Gasol will play the 4 and Odom who they criticized vehemently because he took and missed that last shot...will move over to the 3...THEY Love it!!!!!!

Also hearing from ESPN that the trade was made because Bynum might be out longer than expected. I am also hearing that Memphis wants to reduce cash, so I wondering if there are any Grizzlies we can steal ..rudy gay for Primo and Fabio etc...

They are saying the Lakers DOMINATED the Pistons last night and should have won the game!!

They are saying that the Lakers will leave Bynum at the 5, Gasol will play the 4 and Odom who they criticized vehemently because he took and missed that last shot...will move over to the 3...THEY Love it!!!!!!

They are saying the Lakers DOMINATED the Pistons last night and should have won the game!!

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That's going to be a very big frontcourt. Teams are going to have to run, run, run against them!!

Tell you what, the Lakers will be hoping they don't get the Suns or Warriors in the first round. That probably would be a bad matchup for them.

6'8" average height. I bet that Odom comes off the bench later in the year. Not enough shots in that starting lineup for him. Also, they need some 3-point shooting around Kobe. Fisher is not enough. Odom is shooting 23% this year from 3's.

This is one of the most lop sided trades I have sen in my life. It is a salary dump nothing more. It is just not right. Perhaps they want to follow the Atlanta Hawks GM model of tanking until you get cheap young talent to win with.

Oh, I forgot that Jerry West is calling the shots in Memphis. No wonder it was such a good trade for the Lakers.

The details are sort of complicated.

Memphis gets:
1) Kwame and his expiring $9M contract
2) Crittenton
3) Aaron McKie, who is retired unofficially (they need to do a sign-and-trade. Not sure how this works into the deal and why it is necessary/ what benefit it provides, etc.)
4) draft rights to Marc Gasol (he was drafted 48th in the 2007 draft by the Lakers.)
5) first round pick in 2008
6) first round pick in 2010

That's a whole lot of stuff that needs to be analyzed before declaring that this was a bust for Memphis. Any chance Marc Gasol will become an Eli Manning for Memphis?

Also, it looks like Swift is gone in exchange for Collins (owed $6.2M next year, then contract expires). Staudemire already agreed to the buyout.

This is a full-blown rebuild. Tanking hard is the only logical next step.

if the Lakers win the "ship", this could be the "Rasheed Wallace trade" analogy that puts them over the top, if Bynum does come back soon and can be the same force he was when he went down.......and oh yeah Gasol and Kobe both like to shoot.so somebody has to back off......

I live here in and I don't like it!! But I do like that they want to win and are aggressive about going for the ring again...at all costs in other words, F the luxury cap...we got to keep Kobe happy...and we got to win

The Pistons are a good team, but if Joe could just pull off one blockbuster like this that assures that we get by the Celtics, Cavs, etc. and beat those Lakers or Spurs etc I would feel a little more comfy......but if we got to stick with what we got...get those youngsters more PT now so they can hold their own in the post season.